More than 20 people died on Thursday as Syrian government planes continued to attack eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, with a barrage of airstrikes.

The airstrikes are part of an onslaught that has stretched on since Monday, NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports from Beirut.

"Local monitoring groups are reporting that just today, 21 people were killed and 125 others injured, including women and children," Ruth says. "That brings the total number of deaths to at least 167 people in last four days.

The White House says it "could have done better" in its handling of allegations of domestic abuse against former staff secretary Rob Porter.

Principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah on Thursday called the allegations "troubling" and insisted White House officials took them seriously while suggesting that any missteps in their response were because the "emerging reports were not reflective of the individual who we had come to know."

The Trump administration has released its first assessment of the impact of the president's decision to reinstate the "Mexico City policy," which cuts off U.S. aid to international groups unless they promise not to provide or promote abortion, even with non-U.S. funding sources.

The review finds that so far practically all grantees have agreed to those conditions. But opponents of the policy caution that the administration's statistics offer too incomplete a picture to draw conclusions about the policy's impact.

U.S. officials say American advisors accompanying Syrian opposition forces came under attack by government-backed troops in Deir el-Zour Province. U.S.-led coalition forces retaliated by launching airstrikes against the troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, according to the Defense Department.

One Syrian rebel soldier was wounded but no U.S. forces were killed or wounded, according to NPR's Tom Bowman, who is reporting from elsewhere in Syria.

The FBI says it has found no foul play in the mysterious death of a border agent beside a remote West Texas highway last November in an incident that many assumed to be a homicide, and which prompted calls for greater border security.

An autopsy released Tuesday night concluded Border Patrol Agent Rogelio Martinez died of "blunt force trauma" to his head caused by an "undetermined manner of death."

It had been just about 24 hours since a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rattled Taiwan's east coast, crumbling walls and knocking tall buildings askew, when rescue workers felt another big rumble late Wednesday. A quake — this time magnitude 5.7 — had just struck again near the city of Hualien.

Roku devices and Samsung smart TVs have easy-to-exploit security vulnerabilities, according to testing carried out by Consumer Reports.

"We found that a relatively unsophisticated hacker could change channels, play offensive content, or crank up the volume," the magazine says. "This could be done over the web, from thousands of miles away."

A new bill under consideration by Florida lawmakers would stop insurance companies from dodging workers compensation payouts by aiding in the arrest and deportation of unauthorized immigrants who are injured on the job.

It won't be long before South Korea kicks off its grand turn on the world stage, but the specter of illness is already haunting the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Organizers have removed some 1,200 security personnel from their posts and quarantined them in their rooms after several dozen tested positive for norovirus.

Vice President Pence, who will lead the U.S. delegation at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang on Friday, says he is prepared to announce the "toughest" economic sanctions yet on North Korea.

At the start of a six-day visit to Japan and South Korea, the vice president said the U.S. "will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever — and we will continue to isolate North Korea until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs once and for all."

After weeks of talks and months of political wrangling, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally emerged with a deal to form a new governing coalition following inconclusive parliamentary polls in September that left her ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union and its partners in limbo.

The deal Wednesday morning between the CDU and coalition partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) ensures that Merkel, who has already served for more than 12 years, will get another term in office.

President Trump has weighed in on the death of Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson, who was killed over the weekend in a suspected drunken-driving accident involving a Guatemalan citizen living in the U.S. illegally.

The National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday that engineers falling asleep at the controls led to two recent New York City-area commuter train crashes that killed one person and injured more than 200 others. The investigative agency has sharply criticized the Trump administration for scrapping a proposed regulation aimed at preventing such fatigue-related events.

Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino acknowledged that he is responsible for insisting that actress Uma Thurman perform a car stunt that resulted in a crash that nearly killed her 15 years ago.

Thurman's account of the accident, which chilled relations between Thurman and Tarantino for years, was detailed in a New York Times story over the weekend. Much of the article centers on Thurman's allegations that she had been sexually assaulted by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

A federal judge concerned over the safety of jurors has ordered special protections for the panel of people who will eventually determine the fate of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, according to court documents obtained by NPR.

Daniel Zwerdling, a longtime investigative correspondent with NPR, has retired after a tenure spanning nearly four decades. The network's announcement Tuesday coincided with published allegations of sexual harassment against the Peabody-winning journalist, including claims of unwanted kisses and inappropriate conversations.

Zwerdling, for his part, has publicly stated the allegations are false.

Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted in 2006 of conspiring with the Sept. 11 attackers, has filed a complaint over the conditions at the federal prison where he is serving a life sentence.

The Associated Press reports that Moussaoui has filed handwritten petitions in federal courts in Oklahoma and Colorado, saying he suffers "psychological torture" as he is kept in complete isolation. Moussaoui seeks relief from prison guidelines that "keep me in total isolation without access to a lawyer to break me psychologically," according to the AP.

Best Buy has told music suppliers that it will pull all CDs from its stores this summer, according to a report from Billboard. This move should come as no big surprise: Between unlimited streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, and the ongoing vinyl revival, CDs just don't have the sway that they used to.

A series of earthquakes is rocking Taiwan, leaving at least four people dead and more than 100 injured, according to The Associated Press, which cites Taiwan's premier, William Lai.

The shaking started late Tuesday night local time, toppling buildings, destroying one bridge and buckling paved streets along the island's eastern coast. The quakes continue to jolt the area near Hualien County through early Wednesday morning.

The latest AP tally reports 225 people injured and more than 140 unaccounted for.